


Waiting for the Stars

by KinomiAkai



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Universe, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining, Post-War, Present Tense, Romance, basically just two people looking at the stars, except those people are sasuke and naruto so it takes 6k to make them talk, minor warning for discussion of reasons to live, my computer crashed as I was putting in these tags and now I forget everything, writing is pretty stream of conciousness-y
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26669203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KinomiAkai/pseuds/KinomiAkai
Summary: Sasuke and Naruto lay under the stars. (There's a meteor shower tonight.)Canonverse, SNS, oneshot.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 76
Kudos: 400
Collections: THE naruto fic list





	Waiting for the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaand September has been exactly as hectic as I thought it would be, haha. How are you all? I hope you've been doing okay. I managed to find the time to write this mainly because [this piece of art](https://kinomiakai.tumblr.com/post/630358398262738944) sparked my inspiration so fiercely that I dropped everything to get this done. 
> 
> For those of you waiting on my original stuff - it's on it's way! It's almost done and is the next thing on my list. Will definitely be up by the end of the month. Love you all, and here's this month's fic!

The night is young and Sasuke is old.

Feels old. Feels older. His memories weigh heavier by the day, and Sasuke finds himself sinking into them over and over again. Not with regret—no, he's taken that tumble often enough to be numb to it, now. But he…

He just has to think.

"You okay?"

And Naruto doesn't, of course. Naruto moves, acts, speaks—and thinks last of all. But that suits Sasuke just fine, he thinks, turning to him.

Naruto holds his heart out with every breath, and Sasuke closes his eyes and lets the warmth hit him.

"Tired?" comes Naruto's voice. "We could find a bed, you know."

"I'm alright," Sasuke replies, and it's a strange thing to say. A lie, almost certainly. All of him? No. No, all of him was not...right. It hadn't been for a long time, he supposes.

"...One of those nights?" Naruto asks, and it's quieter. It's calm and steady—gentle and kind. It speaks with a patience he would never have recognized in Naruto's voice when they were children, but now—

Now, he knows it like the back of his hand.

"Yes," he tells it, and Naruto rolls even closer to him. Sasuke doesn't roll away. Sasuke stares into the darkness and feels the warmth of Naruto's skin, letting it push him past the memories that try to surface every night.

It's so easy, in the dark.

"Wanna talk about it?"

It's a strange question. Naruto asks it all the time. Sasuke gets the sense that he's worked through quite a lot, with the help of those around him, and that he wants to help Sasuke do the same.

Talking about it. Everyone seems to think it will help.

Maybe it will.

But there are too many words on Sasuke's tongue to pick which one to say. It's his newest struggle, and one Naruto has yet to comment on. He likely knows, though.

He tends to know.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke picks finally, looking up at the stars. It was a clear day, and now a clear night—the stars litter the sky with enough brightness to make Naruto hold his breath and wait for one to move.

(He's come to believe in the power of shooting stars, he's told Sasuke—thoroughly and completely, after they managed to bring his best friend home.)

"This again?" Naruto rolls over, looking at Sasuke as if their lives had never been anything other than peace. What is it about those eyes that can convince him of that? Lie to him, like that?

Sasuke looks into those eyes, and he wants to believe.

"How many times are you gonna apologize?" Naruto asks him, hand under his cheek and dirt on his forehead. It had smudged there earlier today, and Sasuke hadn't had the heart to tell him. He knows Naruto will yell at him later for it all.

(He's looking forward to it.)

"As many as it takes."

Naruto puffs up and breathes out, sitting up and then down again as if fighting against some strange discomfort to let him settle. Maybe it's the same one Sasuke feels, sometimes, when Naruto's gaze gets lost in the past.

(His guilt grows.)

"For what?" Naruto settles on, his face on his elbow, now. "I forgave you before you even came back. I forgave you the moment I understood you. What's it gonna take for you to forgive yourself?"

Sasuke breathes out, and Naruto turns to stare up at the same stars Sasuke used to screw his eyes shut to avoid. Something about the sky, in all its forms—it always reminded him of Naruto. The day was his eyes, the night held their spark—the sunrise had the hope, and the sunset…

Naruto turns to meet his eye, and Sasuke swallows.

The sunset has the peace.

"What's the actual problem?" Naruto asks, blissfully unaware of the way Sasuke's thoughts tumbled down their own distracted path. "It's not Konoha. Is it just that you wanted to kill me?"

It's simplified. It's basic and _easy_ and although it rings with truth, Sasuke finds himself…

Offended.

"Because you were the last thing left," he finds himself saying, as if it's a rebuttal. It's a snap and a snipe, and Sasuke jerks with the words. "Because if you were gone, there would be nothing. I would be nothing. You—every time you showed up, you—"

Sasuke stares down at his hand, and Naruto sits up with him.

The weight is heavy, at his side.

"Made me want to live," he finishes quietly, because Naruto would pick the words out of him within the night if he didn't. He'd been reminded—by those eyes. He'd felt alive, something other than numb, and that had been—

Terrifying. No, he couldn't let himself live. Survive, but not _live_ —not feel, not remember, not let himself entertain any emotion other than rage. And he'd destroyed them, he'd really thought he had, until Naruto would show up and stare up at him and open that stupid, stupid mouth—

And Sasuke would feel.

Just the look of him. Just the sound of his voice. Just the smallest glimpse of a reminder of Naruto and all his work was undone—and so the only way forward along the path he'd _known_ was the only to choose was to destroy it all. Make him disappear, make him _leave_ , kill the man and bury the memories with him—

And he'd tried.

God, he'd tried.

"Do you want to live now?" Naruto asks, and it's quiet. The hope in his eyes is delicately balanced with the resignment—the caution, the brace for a hit. He doesn't need to do that, Sasuke thinks—

Because he looks at Naruto, and his heart says yes.

"I mean, you should live for more than me," Naruto is saying, "anyway."

Naruto breathes out and looks away, and Sasuke isn't sure if Naruto has read the answer somewhere in Sasuke's face, or suddenly got too scared to hear it at all. Naruto doesn't understand, though. That much is clear. Each of Sasuke's breaths is a stepping stone on his way to breathing in the same air as Naruto. He's the earth and the sky and Sasuke knows, now, why he was so inescapable.

"I'm working on that," Sasuke tells him, and Naruto looks up again.

It's enough for Naruto. Sasuke sees it in his eyes—they way that something lessens, ever so slightly. Sadness, or worry, or care, or everything mixed all together and stared right into Sasuke's eyes. He sees that emotion and he wants to cry.

It's just too much.

He looks away, instead.

"Yeah," Naruto says, and Sasuke studies his palm. "I know. You're doing good."

His head jerks to the side. He's unused to this, still—these quiet compliments from Naruto. Naruto meets his surprise with a smile and a duck of his head, and Sasuke drinks in the motion as if it's the last thing he'll ever see.

(His sharingan activates. Naruto sees the change, but stays silent.)

"That's not what you thought a moment ago," Sasuke tries, testing out the waters. Challenging the thoughts. Naruto is pushing him and Sasuke—

Sasuke is trying to push back.

"Huh? What'd I do?" Naruto asks, with all the conviction of a man who doesn't realize Sasuke can read him like a book. A book he's read from back to front, over and over again. A book he sinks into before he sleeps, picks up first thing in the morning. He has the words memorized over and over again, and so the moment he discovers a new one—

"You're scared," Sasuke tells him, laying down to look at the sky. "You're scared that I want to die."

Which wasn't...quite right. No, if Sasuke wanted to be dead, he'd have managed it. There had been plenty of ways, over the years. But there had always been a reason. A goal—something he'd set his sight on above all else. Itachi, and then Konoha. They were everything. All he knew, all he needed to know.

He hadn't accomplished either of them, in the end. Not in any...way that he'd planned. He'd stuck to his path only to have Itachi rip the ground from under him in the blink of an eye, and Konoha…

That way had always been a dead end.

(Naruto had found a trail, though. Go figure.)

And with no roads to follow anymore, where did that leave him? Laying in a field, beside the one thing he'd never been able to deny.

"Well, yeah," Naruto says, laying down beside him. "That's not exactly a new fear."

It's a breathy sigh, but not a resigned one. Just a simple statement, and Naruto's eyes stay clear and focused as he scans Sasuke's face.

"It shouldn't be one," Sasuke tells him, and Naruto looks surprised. "Just because I don't know why I'm alive doesn't mean I don't want to be."

Naruto pauses for a moment, before a small laugh leaves his lips. Sasuke smiles and replays the sound in his head at least twice more.

"See?" he says, shuffling his body closer to Sasuke's. "Told you you're doing good."

He shoves his arm under Sasuke's head, and Sasuke takes the hint to use it as a pillow, too. He supposes it's only fair for him to use it—with the way they're laying, only Naruto has a full arm to rest on.

(He could roll over, of course, and face the other way.)

(He doesn't.)

"It's that, though, huh?" he asks, his fingers reaching just past Sasuke's neck. "Not having that...sort of goal?"

Sasuke rests his face against Naruto's wrist.

"How did you handle abandoning your goal?" he challenges, and Naruto blinks at him.

"I didn't," Naruto says.

Sasuke scans his face again.

"I thought you turned down the Hokage position," he says, looking for any bit of denial, "permanently."

Naruto's face widens into a large, laughing grin. Sasuke can't help but feel it's at his expense.

"Sasuke," he says, and it sounds like laugh. "That wasn't my goal."

He says it like Sasuke is an idiot. Like he's incredulous, like it's the most ridiculous thing Sasuke has ever said. But Sasuke—

"It was," he insists. "It used to be."

Naruto laughs again.

"At one point, maybe," he says, sliding his arm along the ground (and Sasuke's skin) as he shuffles closer. "It was never about that, though. You know that."

Sure. Sure, he did—not about the position, but about the acknowledgement. The respect, the attention, the love that Naruto had never received as a child—those had been Naruto's true goals. Which, he had certainly—

"And then it got replaced, anyway," Naruto laughed, rolling onto his back. "Which is _also_ something you should know. Don't you know?"

He doesn't roll back, but his head turns to Sasuke.

Sasuke breathes in.

"Yeah," Naruto says, with that glint in his eye. "Hokage...I guess I gave up on it. That's not really how it feels, though."

Naruto turns back to look at the sky, and Sasuke feels the weight of his head against his arm.

"Feels more like I found what I really wanted."

Naruto stares up at the stars, and Sasuke stares at him.

Impossible. That's the way it feels—that's the way all of this feels. Ever since Naruto had stepped out of Konoha, at Sasuke's side, Sasuke had been bewildered. Sasuke's confusion grows every day. And his peace, and his contentment, and his...happiness.

He's here, they're alive, and they're alone.

The world feels bigger than it ever has before.

And it had been at Naruto's fingertips. He'd seen it—laying in a hospital bed, surrounded by the people he'd forcibly labelled the enemy. Naruto had awoken first, healed first, and everyone had turned to him. He'd known every name in the room and every name out of it. He spoke and the world brightened. He laughed and the world laughed with him.

Naruto is a hero, and Konoha is not the only place that thinks so.

And for the millionth time in his numb, confused, grasping-at-straws state, Sasuke had sat and stared at the evidence that Naruto...didn't need him at all. Could have moved on. Should have moved on. He kept waiting for it to happen.

He was still waiting.

Naruto's head rolls to face him again, and he's still smiling.

"You're quiet tonight," he says, and Sasuke meets his eyes with a small pang in his heart. Like an echo, when he looks into them. He…

"You've said enough for the both of us," he shoots back, and Naruto laughs. He pulls his hand out from under Sasuke only to whack at his nose, and Sasuke lets the motion hit.

He likes to think the touch lingers.

"I guess I have," Naruto says, sitting up. "I tend to."

Sasuke stares at his back.

"You do," he says softly, and Naruto shoots him a small, amused smile. "Did you want to make it to a village tonight?"

"For—for a bed? I don't mind," Naruto says, shrugging. "I'm waiting for the stars."

He leans back, looking up, as if his words will command them to appear. They should, Sasuke thinks. The world ought to know who it was that made it turn.

"Are you?" he asks. "I thought your wish came true."

Naruto looks back at him, and Sasuke's heart pangs again.

"It did," he says, and Sasuke doesn't breathe. "I've got another one, now."

What a coincidence, Sasuke thinks, as Naruto looks back up to the sky.

So does he.

"What is it?" he asks, and Naruto scoffs.

"C'mon, asshole, you know I can't tell you. I'm not risking that shit."

It works to make Naruto fall back to his side, and Sasuke finds the smile on his lips.

"Is it about me?" he asks, and Naruto stuffs his arm under Sasuke's head again.

"Think all my wishes revolve around you, you arrogant prick?" he asks, and it's quiet.

Sasuke stays silent, and scans his eyes.

Naruto relents within the minute.

"Yeah," he breathes out, rolling back, "'course it is. Bastard."

Sasuke is pleased. Sasuke is pleased enough to sit up—to lean over a Naruto who stays firmly on the ground, needing to reach over him to press his hand to the earth below them.

Naruto doesn't meet his eye, but he doesn't move away.

And it's...another piece. Another piece of gold on the pile Sasuke has begun to hoard in the back of his mind. The way Naruto had chased him, the way he'd fought through everything and anything if only to understand Sasuke...if only to reach him. The way they'd thought they'd died together.

The way they hadn't.

The way Naruto had insisted he stay in the hospital as long as Sasuke was. The way he'd spoken to Sakura, and Tsunade, and some several thousand other people in hushed tones, until Sasuke finally broke the decision out of him. The way he'd refused to leave until the quests for reform had begun—

The way he didn't hesitate to leave the moment Sasuke had stepped outside.

The way his eyes had brimmed with hope before Sasuke had asked him. The way his eyes had darted to the gates and then back again—the way his shoulders had frozen, as if unable to breathe.

The way he lays beside him, now, and wishes on stars with Sasuke's name.

"Oh!" Naruto says, springing up so quickly he nearly knocks his head into Sasuke's, as if they were kids again. "There's one! Sasuke—make a wish!"

He slaps Sasuke on the shoulder three times before Sasuke grabs the hand out of the air. He doesn't see the star until it's fading, but he sees it all the same.

` He doesn't let go. (The star ought to understand that.)

"Knew there'd be one," Naruto laughs, and Sasuke still hasn't let his hand go. "I heard tha—"

Naruto's voice stops, and his eyes do the same.

Sasuke pulls his hand away.

No.

No, the night was getting to him again. The night and the stars—and Sasuke knows better than to wish on stars. Should know better.

He lays down, and Naruto's eyes are still on him. He closes his own, spiralling in his own forged evidence and biased memories. Wishful thinking, all of it, but the thoughts are in Sasuke's head all the same. Consistently. Constantly. He's just as obsessive over Naruto as he has been about everything else.

Maybe he does have a new goal, after all.

The sigh leaves his lips, but the thought doesn't. He holds that back, at least. It's getting harder and harder, with the way Naruto is. It had been hard enough seeing him in those small, shattering bursts, but this—

Every moment is an explosion, and this is one type of smoke Sasuke will never grow used to breathing in.

He'd taste it, though. He's tasted it before, stupid and short and accidental as it had been. He'd happily try it again, brilliant and forever and on purpose this time—but Naruto's devotion is different than Sasuke's, and Sasuke has to work harder to remind himself of that every day.

"You're missing them," Naruto tells him, and Sasuke's eyes open on their own. He reacts to Naruto—reacts to his voice and his eyes and his insults before ever having a thought. It's always been that way.

"Another shower tonight?" Sasuke asks, and Naruto relaxes again.

"Yeah," he says. "It was supposed to be today."

Sasuke rolls to look at him, and Naruto looks rather like he had when he'd been caught in a prank as children.

That nervous laugh is exactly the same.

"Sorry," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's why I wanted to come out here. I—uh—"

"I don't mind," Sasuke says, wondering why on earth he would. "You could have told me."

It had been a longer journey, but nothing close to what they'd both done before. Sasuke doesn't even have an ache to show for it. Some fatigue, maybe, but that can easily be attributed to something—

"I kinda wanted it to be a surprise."

Else.

The jump in his heart does leave him rather...tired. The spike in his nerves, the hitch in his breath—Naruto reminds him of his importance almost constantly, and Sasuke reacts the same stupid way, every stupid time. Ever since he's let himself feel, it's inescapable. Unstoppable. Ever since Sasuke had tried to build that dam, Naruto had been breaking it down.

"Is that weird?" Naruto asks, and Sasuke thinks it might be. He thinks it with the same wistful mind that thinks Naruto looks at him a little too long, and smiles at him a little too differently. Their relationship is weird. It's different. Isn't it?

Sasuke thinks it could be.

"No," he says instead, and they look back up at the sky.

The night grows quiet, again. Quiet with a peace that used to set Sasuke immediately on edge, ready for whatever would ruin it—quickly and inevitably.

He doesn't find himself feeling that as often, anymore.

So maybe Naruto is right. Maybe Sasuke is getting better. Healing, slowly. Picking up the pieces of his mind, and putting them together in the way they had supposed to be fitting this whole time. They were warped, now—molded and melted, and bits were missing where the fit used to be perfect.

But that is okay, Sasuke thinks. He's coming to prefer the way they fit, now.

He catches Naruto looking at him, there. He feels his eyes when he's looking up at the sky, and his wish flitters from his mind as Naruto jerks his head away.

"What?" he asks, because Naruto's eyes are dropping to him so frequently, there isn't even a basis on which to build the lie that Sasuke hasn't noticed.

"Uh!" Naruto says, shifting and moving, using up that nervous energy that way he always tends to. Naruto is hardly still at the best of times. "I—uh. I just wanted to—I don't—actually mind. At all, um, when you—if you touch me or whatever. Uh. It seemed like you might—might think I do, so I—uh. Just thought I should tell you."

His lips thin with a tight unhappiness, and he presses them together as he looks back up at the sky. Sasuke scans every crease in his face and begs them to give up their secrets.

They give him wishful thinking instead.

"I know," he offers quietly, and they're back to looking up at the sky. Sasuke can't sit as comfortably as he once did. Naruto's found his way to lean on one bent arm, but Sasuke has yet to be able to replicate it—

And so he lays down, again, instead.

He wonders if there's any point in keeping his useless wish the same, as the stars scatter by. Or should he spread himself out, in the hopes of getting something that might actually come true? Does the luck stack on itself, building with each star that shoots across the sky? Naruto seems to think so.

Sasuke supposes he _is_ the expert.

His lips twitch as the thought, and Naruto's head jerks towards him, as if in answer.

"What?" he asks, looking over at Sasuke.

"What?" Sasuke asks back. He wasn't the one who had spoken.

"You laughed. Why're you laughing?"

Sasuke lets the smile spread on his face, and keeps silent.

It works.

"Why're you laughing?!" Naruto insists, immediately panicking. Immediately closer, shoving at Sasuke until Sasuke catches the hand again— "Asshole! You—"

"You're an idiot," Sasuke laughs, and Naruto shoves him right back to the ground.

They laugh, though. They laugh and wrestle and it isn't anything close to the types of fights they've had before. The movements are loose—messy, and Sasuke misses much more often than he ever hits. Naruto does the same, and Sasuke knows it's on purpose.

A star shoots above them, just past Naruto's head.

"Wh—oh!" Naruto says, looking up— "Did I miss one?"

Naruto's hand is the one that lingers, this time. He looks up, but his body stays.

"Yes," says Sasuke's voice, automatically reacting on its distant own as Sasuke's mind stays firmly here, on the ground. Underneath Naruto. Just his shoulder—a simple, easy touch, but one that had stayed and was staying, and Sasuke—

Sasuke sees another star, and he wishes.

He closes his eyes, and wishes.

"Oh—uh, crap. Was I hurting you?"

The warmth is gone as quickly as it comes. Naruto pulls himself back and the cold tears Sasuke's eyes open again—out of the dizzying spell he keeps finding himself falling into when Naruto gets a little too close to him.

"No," he says, as if the trees aren't spinning around him. "Not at all."

"I don't mean like _hurting_ hurting," Naruto grumbles, and Sasuke snorts at him. Yes, the two of them have a...skewed perception of pain. And Sasuke is guiltier than most of not being able to identify hurt as such because it doesn't even come _close_ to how he's defined it before.

His definitions aren't what they should be, and Naruto is well aware.

In fact, much of his knowledge is...undefined. Enemies. Friends. Allies? He'd never really cared to differentiate them, as long as whomever it was was a step closer to his goal. It makes it all the more bizarre to sit in this—in this deep, flooding...something. Friendship feels too weak, although Naruto will be the first to call them friends. And Sasuke will be the first to defer to his judgement.

Out loud.

In his own head, he's obsessed. In his own head, he tumbles over the thoughts and the feelings and the memories and Naruto, Naruto, Naruto, over and over again. He's reached a point where he's searched through enough to fall back to the person who pushed him to get here in the first place.

And here, in this torrent, Sasuke knows that _friendship_ doesn't...fit.

Doesn't cover it. Doesn't even begin to cover it—it's cheap, in comparison. It's small, it may very well be nothing for all it does to explain what him and Naruto have been through. And Sasuke knows nothing at all about love or romance or soulmates or what have you—

But he looks at Naruto, and he knows how he feels.

Naruto's mouth opens and closes again, his brow furrowing as he clearly _thinks_ , before he speaks. What a world they live in, Sasuke thinks to himself.

"You're quiet today," Naruto says, and he's trying it again. He's said that already, and yet he chooses to say it again. Sasuke calls back his first words, too, and lets himself think about these ones instead.

"Nothing's wrong," Sasuke says finally, answering the question he thinks Naruto might be asking. "Not any more than usual. It was a good day."

A clear day. A bright day, with the sun streaming through the treetops and a breeze flowing through the leaves. Sasuke's head had felt light, and for once, his heart had felt the same. They'd taken their time in the walk—encountering little else other than the many birds and scattered rabbits in their path. There had been no rush; nowhere to be. No time constraints. Although Naruto had, apparently, planned to be here.

What a strange thought. Naruto, planning ahead.

"Yeah," Naruto says, studying Sasuke the way he tends to, "but you're—what're you thinking about?"

Sasuke tilts his head and considers his answer.

"Things," he settles on, finally, because _you_ is unacceptable, and a lie would be just the same. Naruto is just as unsatisfied with this, though, if the groan he lets out is anything to go by—

" _Things_ ," he mocks, flopping on his back. "You wanna elaborate, bastard?"

Sasuke finds the smile on his lips.

"Not particularly."

Naruto loves deeply and earnestly, and _everyone_. Sasuke tells himself this. He says it over and over again, because Naruto so often says the things that make it seem as if his focus has and will always be for Sasuke, alone, and that...that has him hoping. Praying.

Wishing on stars.

He breathes out, and Naruto is looking at him. Out of the corner of Sasuke's eye, he catches the motion of another star.

"Why did you come with me?" Sasuke tries, because it's at least one of the million questions in his heart he's yet to ask. He's wondered it—he's wondered it almost every day, but he had never felt...ready. For the answer.

He thinks he might be ready, now.

The smile pulls along Naruto's face, as if just the mention of the memory brings him happiness. Sasuke's heart swells with a pride it isn't used to.

"'Cause you asked," Naruto says, and it's full of his laugh. A surprised, exhilarated breath—as if the thought had been wild, even then. Unexpected. Impossible.

Sasuke thinks he should have known better.

"Did you expect me not to?"

Naruto props his head up on his fist.

"Out loud? Hell no."

He laughs, and Sasuke rolls his eyes. Stupid. He hadn't even done that great a job of voicing it at all, in the end. Just layered hint on hint, like what Naruto would (and wouldn't) do in Konoha, if not being the Hokage—like the break he deserved, after championing every war effort he'd been part of—like quietly remarking on the things he'd seen, outside of Konoha, and sitting up straight when Naruto would say things like _'I'd like to see that.'_ —

He'd asked every way he could. He hadn't even realized what he was doing—how badly he'd wanted it—until Naruto had said yes.

"I never really asked."

Naruto blinks at him, furrowing his brow as if scanning through the memories in his head. Sasuke raises an eyebrow and patiently waits for Naruto to figure himself out.

"I _guess_ ," he grumbles, settling down. "No—you did. You totally did."

Sasuke continues to look at him.

"Not with the words," Naruto elaborates. "You totally did, though."

...Maybe. Sasuke breathes out, and doesn't answer.

"But, y'know," Naruto says, rolling to stare up at the sky, "I think I might've followed you anyway. Even if you didn't."

Sasuke's heart pangs again.

"I suppose you've done that before."

That surprises a laugh out of Naruto, and he turns to Sasuke with it.

(Sasuke's sharingan is back, again.)

"Yeah?" he laughs. "And why d'you think I did that, asshole?"

He stares, and Naruto scoffs and rolls back again, as if there's some sort of obvious truth Sasuke is missing.

"I've never known," he says honestly, and Naruto laughs again.

"Well," he says, staring up at the stars, "stop tuning me out when I say it, asshole. I'm your friend."

Something in Sasuke twists.

"Is that all?" Sasuke asks, and it's automatic. It's subconscious. It's Naruto, again, pulling the words from him before he has the thought, and Sasuke immediately wants to suck them back. Naruto's head jerks over to him and his smile falters, like it had when Sasuke had held onto his hand for several moments too long—

Sasuke fights to keep his face still.

"I—uh," Naruto says, sitting up. (Sasuke follows the motion.) "I—mean, um. Not—really."

Stuttering, nervous, shifting and uncomfortable. Sasuke studies the motions as if he doesn't have them memorized.

"I mean, it's true, but it's—" Naruto is saying, hand in his hair, eyes anywhere but Sasuke's face. Sasuke follows them just in time to catch the end of another star, fading in the sky—

Naruto breathes in.

"It's not...all."

Sasuke meets his eye. Naruto's lips thin and slip to one side, as if he's biting the edge of one as he shrugs. Soft and half-hearted and nervous, nervous, nervous.

What a strange thing to have them so on edge, after everything they'd been through.

What a strange, simple thing.

"What else is there?" Sasuke asks, and he's well and truly begging, now. He could have left this alone ages ago. But, somehow—tonight—

He can't.

Maybe it had been the day—the way Naruto's voice had been the only one he'd heard, and never once did it ask to hear one other than Sasuke's.

Maybe it was his body—his chest, around his heart, more than anything. His lungs, too. It didn't hurt to breathe, anymore. Sasuke had well and truly thought this pain was a part of him—an inevitability of his life, and yet…

He'd barely felt it at all, today.

But then, maybe it had been before. Maybe it had been a set of stacked tiles, falling over one by one, with the first kicked over by the feet Naruto had bounded out of Konoha with. _A_ _vacation_ , he'd said. He'd practically sang the words.

And if he's to go back that far, then he may as well keep falling back, because he can find the hands Naruto's been pushing him with since the day he met him. Saw him, even. Heard his voice. And if that's the case, then maybe Sasuke has been building to this his whole life—their whole lives, getting closer and closer until there is nothing left but—

This.

Just them. Just Sasuke, Naruto, and this...feeling.

(And the stars, he supposes.)

(...Maybe it's the stars.)

"Well, you—" Naruto starts, catching his breath as he catches another star. "I—you know. You know."

He waves a hand, and Sasuke doesn't know.

"I don't," he tells him, and Naruto is very, very unhappy with the answer.

He breathes in.

"I—okay. Okay."

He breathes out.

"To be honest, Sasuke, I—" he says, his hand back in his hair. His head ducking down, but his eyes still on Sasuke—nervous and blue. So, so blue. "I don't think this—um."

He swallows.

Sasuke keeps the silence.

"I think you kinda know," Naruto starts—soft and scattered. Something close to panicked, even— "I think you've gotta, honestly. But it's—kinda some shit you might have to work through. And you've got a lot to work through before you get there, so—"

"So you aren't going to tell me?"

Naruto's head snaps up.

"I—it's not a good idea," he says, shaking his head. "You've got enough going on."

"That's never going to change," Sasuke shoots back, and Naruto lets out a small, strained noise.

"I—maybe," he says, looking away and then back again. "But this—listen. Just trust me, okay? It's not anything bad. It's just something that would bug you. I can tell you eventually, if you really want, but—"

No.

"If I already know, then it would already be bothering me. You're not making any sense."

"It—the—you—"

Sasuke leans forward.

"If it's something I already know, in the back of my mind, and you can save me the pain and effort of digging it out of my own stupid memories, then _why_ are you keeping it from—"

"Because I'm selfish!"

Naruto's voice rings out, and he shrinks back as it echoes around them. As the night goes quiet again—like he's begun to show the cracks Sasuke is trying to desperately to pick out—good. _Good_ , Sasuke thinks, as he pushes into them—

"Because you're not going to like it, Sasuke," Naruto says, but he isn't pulling back as he should be. He's not standing, he's not leaving—he's meeting Sasuke's eye and shaking his head, but he's _staying_ — "Because you don't feel the sa—you just—you won't. Okay? We're friends. Leave it at that."

Sasuke stares in his eyes.

Naruto stares right back.

"Please."

Sasuke relents. He breathes out and relents, as if the breath is the one that shoves him right back. But he doesn't stop; he glares up at the sky, and _dares_ it to move—

"...What are you doing?"

"Changing my wish," Sasuke says, glaring up at the sky. Just the one, right? That ought to do the trick.

"Sasuke—"

"What?" he says, not bothering to look at him. "You're the one who said it works."

Naruto's voice cuts off in a breath, and Sasuke knows he has him cornered.

"...You're not going to like it," Naruto insists, but his voice is a whisper.

"Try me," Sasuke says, and a star finally shoots across the sky.

Sasuke stares at it, and wishes.

"I—it's—fine. Fine," Naruto breathes out, and the words come out all at once.

"I'm in love with you. There—that's what—that's how—how I feel, but it doesn't—it's not as if it's _new_ , so it doesn't change anything and if you dare fucking be mad at me for this after dragging it out of me I swear to god, asshole—"

Sasuke grabs him by the shirt, and Naruto is stunned silent.

And for a moment, Sasuke only breathes. He only feels. The words ring in his head and he feels the cold bite of the air and the fabric of Naruto's shirt and he _waits_ for any of it to be the slightest bit off, because this cannot possibly be reality. This is an illusion. This is a dream. In fact, he must have died years ago, in the valley, bleeding out beside Naruto, because every day since then had been a mystery. Sasuke knew what life was like and it had never been like this. It was never like this. It was never—

"Sasuke?" Naruto breathes out, and he's scared. He's scared and limp and tense all at once, as if expecting a hit that he isn't going to make any attempt at all to dodge. And Sasuke—

Sasuke thinks he must look just the same.

"How," he asks, and his voice is shaking. His hand is shaking. His throat is thick and his eyes are burning and he's just trying to breathe, but he can barely even do that— "was I ever supposed to know that?"

Naruto stares at him, and his face changes.

It dawns on him. It's written all through his body, the way his eyes widen and mouth opens and he heaves in a slow, building breath as if it's the first air he's ever tasted, and Sasuke thanks the stars that he hadn't needed to say the words out loud.

(He ought to thank Naruto, too, but Sasuke isn't sure there's ever been a difference.)

"You—um. You—" Naruto breathes in, "um?"

Sasuke laughs. He can't help it. It's a breath and he falls with it, as if he exhaled all the tension in his body out at once, and he doesn't know if it's automatic, but—

Naruto grabs ahold of him, and he doesn't let go.

Sasuke does.

He lets go. He lets himself fall apart, lets himself feel—completely and consumingly, and it's no surprise to either of him that he's crying. It's no surprise to either of them that Naruto is too, and Sasuke clings to him like he should have his entire life—

"You're kidding me, Sasuke," Naruto says, and he's laughing. "You fucking asshole, this whole time—"

Sasuke laughs at him. He laughs at himself, and he buries it into Naruto's shoulder. But it's okay, Naruto's laughing at him too—laughing at the both of them, slow and stupid and _useless_ as they are—

"What is the _matter_ with us?" Naruto asks, and it makes Sasuke laugh again. Past the thickness in his throat and the way his heart hammers in his chest—he's never felt dizzier, and it's incredible.

He hasn't felt this kind of happiness since he'd...lost.

Naruto wrenches his face back and holds it in his hand. Sasuke stares at his red-rimmed eyes with his swollen own, and Naruto scans in between them as if they'll tell him everything that's ever been in Sasuke's heart.

Sasuke stares back, and doesn't try to stop them.

Naruto's laugh is breathless. He falls forwards, and Sasuke isn't certain whether it's Naruto or himself that lets their foreheads press together.

He's certain of something, though.

(He closes his eyes, and sinks into it.)

"Fuck you," Naruto breathes, and Sasuke laughs with his eyes still closed. Naruto's touch is tender and lingering and Sasuke's _dreamed_ of this before. He's dreamed of all of this, and if all of this is a lie waiting to be ripped from his desperate hands than he might as well get all he can while it's still here—

He follows the path of Naruto's nose, tilting just enough to let their faces fit…

Perfectly.

Naruto freezes up as Sasuke kisses him. It's a startled moment—one that melts, one that Naruto reacts to slowly and softly, as if he's burning the feeling into his skin. As if he's etching it into his mind, memorizing every movement like the sharingan Sasuke was already using—

Naruto breathes out and pushes forward, and Sasuke gives in to the hand in his hair. He lets Naruto come alive and lets himself react—lets his love push his forwards for the first time in his life, and he follows it, follows it to Naruto's lips and tongue and chest pressed to his, nose to his cheek, fingers twisted through his hair—

They break for air, but don't move apart.

Naruto is the first to laugh. Of course he is. Blushing and embarrassed and Sasuke brands the picture into his mind with the fire Naruto has always brought out of him. He can feel the own smile on his face, the happiness in his heart—he's lost in this feeling, and it's never, never, never felt better.

"The—uh," Naruto laughs, and it's breathless. "Is that what you were wishing for?"

Sasuke's smile widens.

"Your stars work fast."

Naruto's delighted laugh rings through the clearing.

(It's the brightest thing Sasuke's seen all night.)

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> And there it is! I hope you liked it. It was one of those fics that just kept getting longer, haha. Let me know what you thought!
> 
> As always, all my links are [here](https://kinomiakai.carrd.co/).
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> \- Kinomi


End file.
